Wood-waste feeding system



April 25, 1933. w. E. ALLINGTON ,WOOD WASTE FEEDING SYSTEM Filed Sept. 8, 1931 3 Sheets-Shea?l 1 April 25, 1933. w. E. ALLINGTON WOOD WASTE FEEDING SYSTEM 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 8, 1951 .April 25, 1933.

W. E. ALLINGTON WOOD WASTE FEEDING SYSTEM Filed Sept. 8, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ffy/012 Patented Apr. 25, 1933 UNITED STATE-s PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM E. ALLINGTON, or SAGINAW, MICHIGAN WOOD-WASTE FEEDING .'SYS'TEM Application mea september s, 193,11. lsf.:r 1a1,1\ni. 561,590.

My invention relates to wood-waste feed- .ing systems; particularly to such systems adapted for feeding to furnaces the waste of wood working machines. It is in the na- 5 ture of an improvement upon the system set 15 either damp or dry wood-waste. f

. `'Other objects and advantageswill hereinafter appear.` l y An embodiment Lof the invention is Illus- Fig. 1 is a side'elevation of the feeding equipment, the furnace being partially shown in. section;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged rear elevation and 5 partial section;

Fig. 3 is a top plan of the material distributing part ofthe equipment; and

Fig. fis a section on theline fi of Fie'. 3. v Y

'he complete waste-feeding system, which is illustrated somewhatdiagrammatioally in Fig. 1, comprises, as does the system set `forth in my aforesaid patient, a steam generating boiler and furnace 5, material storage and delivery mechanism 6, and delivery control mechanism, lincluding a pressure responsive device 7 and a suitable motor., such as a small steamV engine. 8,. which 'is governed byy the of the material to the furnace in accordance with slight variations kli steam pressure. The boiler, furnace, and control mechanism may be of any appropriate andl approved 5 type and, since they .are fully explained in my aforesaid patent, they ywill no tbe elaborated upon herein. v

The material storage and delivery mecha nism includes a storage reservoir 9, in which the wastematerial is deposited in any .desired'manner through' an inlet 10 and there trated in the accompanying drawings wheresteam pressure in the boiler,V to vary -thefeed f stored until it is required by vthe furnace. This IhOpp'er 'is of generally rectangular cross section in any horizontal plane and tapers .Oli flares downwardly and outwardly so that it 4is substantially 'larger at lthe bottom or delivery end than at the top or receiving Send. The frontor 'furnace-facing side 11? of hopper 9 is tapered orV flared considerably `Irlole than the other sides yand adjacent the bottom 'is still further spread tov form a for- 50' wa-rclly and downwardly opening apron 12. An adjustable damper or gate 13, pivotally mounted along its upper edge tothe hopper iva-ll lies in the hopper. Thisgateis operfable from the outside of the hopperbyyav5 handle 1,4 and may be held in any adjusted position by a suitable latch and segment as shown. A

The additional flare given tothe front wall lofthe hopper is of great advantage inv the 70 feeding therefrom of damp material. Such heterogeneous material as saw and planing mill waste has a great tendency, even when relatively dry, to arch and clog and this tendency is greatly increased when the material 7.5 is damp or Wet. The adjustable damper permits the delivery or bottom end ofthe hopper to Vbe enlarged or made smaller, de fendmg upon the condition of the material e'ing handled. Thus ifthe material happens to 30 bev relatively dry the gate may be swung to- 4Ward thc right as viewed in Fig. 41 to` prevent the material from flowing downwardly ltoo ,fastA With wetter material the gatemay 'be Vswimg more toward vthe left with the result 85 that the obstruction to downward flow is decreased andthe Wetter material lcan be satisfactorily delivered. l

.1l1'ef bottom of the reservoir isclosed by a hopper 15 which extends laterally of. the 90 hopper and flares or enlarges downwardly and laterally in the direction o f the movewment Yof material therethrough, as best illusltrated in Figs. 3 and 4. A series of horizontally disposed lscrew conveyors 16, 17 18, 19,V 95 2O and 21j-ouinalled in the front and rear l'walls of hopper 15 serve to convey orpush .the materalrtoward the furnace and tor break up incipient clogs and arches. The number ofsuoh conveyors may be varied to best ae- 100 commodate different conditions as to size of. installation, etc., but for a hopper of :a breadth of labout eleven feet at the front or delivery end I have found six screw conveyors of a diameter of about twelve inches give good results. The outermost conveyors, that is the two next to the side walls-ofthe ho'pper, should rotate in such a direction that their outer edges move upwardly and away from the side. hopperwalls. uIn otherwords the screw conveyor adjacent the left hand hopper wall as viewed in Figf should ro, tate in a clockwise direction while the screw conveyor adjacent the 'right handwall should rotate in a counter-clockwise direction. The intermedia-te conveyors should rotate in a direction opposite to that'of the adjacent conveyors.

The front of the hopper opens into a series of downwardly directed boots 18', three beingshown in the system chosen for illustration. Y Each boot terminates in a `supplemental boot 19 which ends in an outlet 20 terminating in the furnace. A screw conveyor 21', `one in each supplemental boot, feeds the material therealong into the furnace. The boots, in effect, form a series of'spouts between the hopper and the furnace. An agitator, inthe form of .a series of screw sections 22, nioun'tedon a transverse shaft 23, at

the delivery ends of the hopper screw conveyors and between the hopper and the spouts therefrom, serves to break up the ma- ,.teri-al as it is delivered by the hopper conveyors, helps to freev them from the load and prevents clogging where thel material passes from the generally horizontal hopper into the generally vertical upper boot of the spout. The action of these agitator screws may be improved by providing them with several small projecting shredder blades 24. Suitable gearing and sprocket and chain l drives serve to communicate motion from the steam engine motor -8 to the various screw conveyors and to the agitator.

; (tion of these screw conveyorsserves not only to move the material through the hopper but t-o break up incipient arches and clogs by their agitating effect upon the material thereabove in the bin and also in the` hopper. The tapering enlargement of the reservoir Iof 'mat-eri al therethrough is of great advantage in the feedingof damp waste material. i For dryer material the. gat-e may beI adjusted so as to decrease the size of the opening from the reservoir into the hopper .and thereby` so obstruct the gravity flow of materialthat .the screwl conveyors will notv becomeover- "loaded'. As the materia-l reaches the. discharge end of the hopper the agitator loosens the same from the' hopper conveyors'and thereof.

steam pressure-bringsabout the opposite result, viz., a speeding up of the engine and screw conveyors and of the rate of feed.

Having thus illustrated and described the nature and one embodiment of my invention. what I claim and desir-e'to secure by United States Letters Patent is as follows:

l. A heterogeneous material feeder having a'downw'ardly and outwardly tapered matevarying the effective taper of oneof the walls of the reservoir to obstruct to a greater or lesser degree the flow of material downwardly therethrough, a hopper closing the bottom of thereservoir and having a forwardly Venlarging taper laterally of the reservoir, a series of screw conveyors arranged in the hopper below the reservoir to carry material through the hopper, and a series of delivery rial storage reservoir, anadjustable gate for.

spouts communicating with the hopper at the delivery end of the screw conveyors thereof.

2. A heterogeneous material feeder having a storage reservoir with downwardly and outwardly sloping side walls,` a gate adjustably related to one of the side walls to vary ,the effective tapery of the reservoir, a hopper lying laterally of and below the reservoir andtapering to enlarge in the direction of movement of material therethrough, a series of screw conveyors for carrying vmaterial through the hopper in the direction of its enlargement, a series of :agitators adjacent the delivery ends of the screw conveyors, and a vseries of spouts opening into the hopper below the agitators to receive the material fed p :through the hopper.v In operation the material is stored in resl 3. A heterogeneous material feeder comprisingia storage reservoir having a downward and outward taper, a hopper lying laterally of and below the reservoir and tapering in the direction of movementof material therethrough, a screw conveyor in the hopper for 'carrying lmaterial therethrough,

fand a screw agitatorrotatable on an axis at an' an'f,` 1;le tothe axis of the screw conveyor and hopper 1n the direction ofthe movement raA hopper lyingbelow the reservoir, a screwl conveyor inthe hopper for carrying mateial 1n a generally horizontal direction therethrough, and an agitator lying beyond the delivery end Vof the screw conveyor and movable across the horizontal path of discharge 5. A heterogeneous material feederv comprising an open bottom storage reservoir having a downward and outward taper, a hopper communicating with the bottom of the reservoir, a screw conveyor in the hopper for carrying material therethrough in a generally horizontal direction, and a screwagitator rotatable on an axis transverse to the axis of the screw conveyor and projecting into the horizontal path of discharge thereof.

6. A heterogeneous material feeder comprising a downwardly and outwardly tapering storage reservoir, a pivotally adjustable gate to vary the taper of the front wall of the reservoir, a forwardly and outwardly tapering hopper lying laterally of and below and in communication with the reservoir, a series of screw conveyors for carrying material forward through the hopper, a series of rotary agitators projecting into the horizontal path of the material in advance of the screw c011- veyors and rotatable on axes transverse to the axes of the screw conveyors, and a series of spouts opening into the hopper below the 'agitators In witness whereof, Ihereunto subscribemy name this 2nd day of September, 1931.

WILLIAM E. ALLINGTON. 

